Volcanoes in Alaska Are "Hopping," Says Scientist

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:17:15 PDT

Witness the glory of one of the two massive volcanoes erupting today in Alaska. Here you can see a satellite's-eye-view of the plumes from Okmok Caldera, floating out between the clouds over the coast. Though Okmok has been erupting for several days, it was joined recently by Mount Cleveland, off the coast in the Aleutian Islands. More eruption below.

Reporting for the Anchorage Daily News, Beth Bragg captures the odd excitement of local volcano researchers:

"Things are very hopping," research geophysicist Peter Cervelli of the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Monday afternoon. "We've been ramped up 24/7 for nine days because of Okmok, and to have Cleveland suddenly go off keeps us busy. I'm not sure I'd describe it as fun, but it's certainly exciting."

I love any geophysicist who describes a volcanic eruption as "very hopping." Images via AP.

Dueling Volcanoes [Anchorage Daily News via Knight Science Journalism Tracker]

Stars Gone Wild!: Supernova Caught on Tape

Michael Reilly — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:30:00 PDT

Researchers at Princeton University got one hell of a treat this past January when a star exploded in the galaxy NGC2770. It's a 100 million light years from Earth, but it marks the first time astronomers have gotten the chance to watch a star explode 'live' from start to finish (well the explosion happened 100 million years ago, but you know what we mean). Witnessing the event caused the lead author to utter the best quote we've ever seen from an astronomer.

From yesterday's Associated Press article, which described how NASA's Swift satellite caught the explosion on tape:

On Jan. 9, astronomers used a NASA X-ray satellite to spy on a star already well into its death throes, when another star in the same galaxy started to explode. The outburst was 100 billion times brighter than Earth's sun. The scientists were able to get several ground-based telescopes to join in the early viewing and the first results were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
"A star exploded right before my eyes," lead author Alicia Soderberg, an astrophysics researcher at Princeton University, said Wednesday in a teleconference (emphasis ours).

She likened it to "winning the astronomy lottery. We caught the whole thing from start-to-finish on tape."

Source: Associated Press

io9: explosion

Volcanoes in Alaska Are "Hopping," Says Scientist

Stars Gone Wild!: Supernova Caught on Tape